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Dems Making Health Care Unaffordable

Local Commentaries

New York’s health insurance premiums have risen well above the national average, imposing a huge financial burden on New York residents. Unfortunately, the New York government recently approved another round of substantial premium rate hikes for almost all private health insurers operating in New York state. Why are premiums so much more expensive than the national average? New York imposes taxes on your hospital bill, on your health insurance contract, on the premium you pay and on health insurance companies. According to an independent analysis of the state budget, New Yorkers ...

Point Chautauqua Opposition Contains The Echoes Of Past Lake Projects

In Our Opinion

For more than a century Chautauqua Lake has been the goose that lays golden eggs. That was the case when lakefront hotels and amusement parks dotted the lake’s shores around the turn of the century. It was true as lakefront homes and summer cottages sprung up around the lake. The goose helped create southern Chautauqua County’s tourist economy. The goose is still capable of laying golden eggs as developers look to spend big bucks on lakefront development. We all love the goose. We really love those golden eggs that keep dollars flowing in the summer. But we can’t seem to ...

Use Natural Gas To Repower Dunkirk Plant

Local Commentaries

In early 2013, New York’s then-governor Andrew Cuomo showed up in Dunkirk on a wintry day to announce with great fanfare that the NRG power plant in Dunkirk would be converted from a clean-coal facility to natural gas-fueled power production. I was a Chautauqua County Legislator at the time and I was there that day to experience the community’s collective sigh of relief that the county’s largest property-taxpaying entity would continue to operate. However, everything changed as the governor pivoted and decided he would bow to political pressure from the advocates on the far ...

Three Sheets To The Wind

Local Commentaries

I’ve missed that wonderful aroma of sheets and towels coming in from the fresh air. Sadly, my house deed states, “no clotheslines,” meaning no tee shirts flapping in the wind on a sunny day. Generations X and Y have probably never inhaled that glorious smell. Now all our sheets come out of the dryer. The manufacturers have tried, but there is still money to be made by the person who gets that little delight just right. Yesterday, I had reason to mourn the loss of that washday joy – the only good part of the laundry process I remember from being a kid. I was sorting sheets – ...

A Life In Linen

Local Commentaries

As a hobby, from time to time, I visit estate sales looking for fine linen to resell. While all the other bargain hunters are in deceased women’s closets looking for designer bags and clothes, I’m happily alone in the linen closet, looking at napkins and tablecloths. Florida is a wonderland for estate sales. The wealthy retire here, and they bring all their stuff with them. They have curio cabinets full of Lladre figurines and Baccarat crystal, closets bursting with designer clothes, and new purses stiff with intention. A long life of consumerism often ends with a line of people ...

Obstructing ICE A Crime, Military Intervention Is Not Needed

In Our Opinion

In better times with better political leaders, the tragic shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis would have caused each side in the fight over Immigration and Customs Enforcement to de-escalate and try to calm the furies. Instead, both sides are courting more confrontation that could end in even more bloodshed. Mr. Trump’s latest move Thursday was to threaten to invoke the Insurrection Act to quell protests in the Twin Cities. He has the authority to do this under the Insurrection Act of 1807, which means he could call on the military to restore public order. But events in Minnesota ...